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Playing games at home

During this never-ending winter, we kept getting into ruts at night, where we would make dinner, flop on the sofa and watch TV. But now that we've seen every episode of House Hunters International, we needed something different...

So, to mix things up, we've started playing games—Alex taught me gin rummy—and it has been really fun to drink wine, play the game and chat. Here are some photos from last night, and a list of games you can play with just two people:

Games you just make up:
Truth or Dare
Would You Rather (Love playing this on vacations)What games do you like? Do you play them with friends and/or with your partner? Do you like any of the games above, or have other suggestions? We'd love any recommendations! :)

Charades! You can play with a large group or small. We always play on summer beach vacations with teams. It can get super competitive and we always have a lot of laughs. Its fun with young kids too- you can see their little minds working out ways to act out their clue.

Backgammon is surprisingly fun and easy to learn. And last year we got really into a board game called Ticket to Ride. Appletters is good a spinoff of Bananagrams, (and more competitive if that's even possible!)

I LOVE playing games (my husband is such a big TV watcher... boo!) but, when I can convince him other wise we enjoy dominos and cards games. Have you every played the card game called "speed"? There are different versions (2 I know of). It's super competitive and quick, which makes it big time fun!

I really want to try Cards Against Humanity. In a group, Balderdash is SO fun. Basically you get a super obscure word and everyone has to make up a definition for it that could be true and then someone reads them all out and you have to guess which one is the real one. And you get points if people guess your silly definition!

Cribbage! My boyfriend and I are just like an old couple (at the age of 23) and play card games on weeknights, Friday nights, at the cottage, curled up at home on the couch or on the dock on those blissful summer eves. Some other fun ones are Mexican Poker, Kings in the Corner and 31.Enjoy!

Not really a game, but having two small Nerf guns ("Jolts" - they use foam tubes for "bullets") is a lot of fun. We will surprise each other with a "shot" and instantly a game ensues. It's a fun way to act like kids with your loved one.

We just recently went away for a long weekend to Switzerland and our staple holiday item - a deck of cards! We love cards nights but don't do them at home for some reason. We play 2 handed 500, but without the "Birthday Girl" advantage, I get very frustrated!!!But I just love chatting, having a G&T and not feeling like i'm getting instantly more stupid from watching whatever reality TV show I happen to be obsessed with.. (ahhh Bachelor....) xx

Have you ever played Articulate? It's a WONDERFUL word guessing game that I picked up while living in England. Especially fun when you have Brits in your family. We usually pit the Americans vs the Brits. Hours of fun!!

Thank you so much for this list! My boyfriend and I are always looking for games that can be played with just 2 people. We have been getting into puzzles this winter. We've also been drinking wine and painting together as a date night (we are not artists by any means, but it's actually really fun)

My husband and I, through both of my pregnancies where I remain mostly on a couch after work, have played Monopoly on our iPad (we both have iPads). You just do WiFi game, and the best part is that you don't have to count all the money/do the bureaucratic stuff Monopoly always seems to include. The computer just does everything and all you have to decide is buy/don't buy/etc. It's very fun and we get surprisingly competitive.

I grew up playing Carrom board with my family...it's a board game that's popular in India where you use a flick of your finger to aim game pieces into a net in opposite corners (sort of like table hockey). Just this week, I actually saw a Carrom board in a toy store in pasadena and was thinking it might be coming back! P.S. Boggle is the best! I can't wait to play that one with my kids when they're older. Another fave: Scattegories!

Do you play SUPER Boggle? That is my all time favorite game. One summer while my husband was doing an internship in Hong Kong I used to practice while he was at work so that I could beat him when we played at night :)

Did you see our episode of HHI? It was so fun to play tv show actor for a few days.

My boyfriend and I have been playing a lot of scrabble during the long winter. We've also been playing pitch, which can be a great two person card game! Check out the rules here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(card_game) We play "draw pitch" specifically. Try it!

I'm OBSESSED with Bananagrams and taboo. A little Scattergories never hurt anyone either.

Sometimes my friends and I play "He's Perfect, but..." a made up game where you come up with potential flaws in a mate who is otherwise perfect and have to decide if you'd be able to overlook it if he was great in every other way. We get a good laugh out of it. I used to play it on my blog too, might be time to bring it back!

Flux! It's 100% dorky but you can play with two players. The rules (as you might guess) are constantly in flux so it's a different game every time.

Also, if you're looking for a game that you can include Toby in you might try Spot it. My daughter is just a few months older than him and the rules are simple enough that she can be competitive with adults. Also, she can't cheat! I feel like games like Candy Land and Memory just make her come up with creative ways to break the rules.

There's a new place that's recently opened in my town (Halifax) that is a games cafe. They have something like 400 board games to choose from, not to mention beer and snacks! I haven't been yet because it's always so crowded. I think it's a genius idea.

I will second (third?) Ticket to Ride! If you look on amazon, they have several different versions, one of which is meant for just 2-3 people (Scandinavia). I hate strategy games, especially playing against my husband who has always been a strategic thinker, but this game is super fun.

ugh, house hunters international! do you talk shit about the "hunters" as well? so bad. We just keep finding more shows, like true detective and house of cards. really need to take a night off and play a game instead!

It can be a bit tricky to master but Canasta is a wonderful card game for two, ask around and when you find someone who knows how to play make them teach you. For Christmas we were gifted Skip-bo and played for about two weeks straight!

Carcassone is a fun strategy board game that can be played with 2 people. My husband usually crushes me at strategy games (he was on the chess team in high school lol) but I can hold my own in that one. Also, it only takes about half an hour to play once you get the hang of it so it doesn't drag on.

ugh, so smart...that rut is easy to fall into and sometimes i realize i'm watching something i'm really not into, but he likes...i have a friend whose parents have been married for thirty-plus years and they play a game together every night. so sweet.

Perudo is so much fun! you can play with 2 people or up to 6 and it's very quick paced when you get into it. You can buy a set online or if you have enough dice for 5 per person and a few plastic cups you can just find the rules online and play! I agree with Articulate as well - brilliant game! Although better with 4+ players

My favorite game is to get to know people is Truth Truth Lie. It's really simple. Every takes turns telling 2 truths about themselves and 1 lie and everyone in the group has to guess which was the lie. It's amazing the things you learn about someone and some incredible stories are shared!

Generala is a tradition in my family. You start playing it as soon as you learn to count to six (about four years old?) and is merciless. Everyone will teachyou, but nobody will let you win. You have to earn it. We play for money (highest bet is AR$1, about U$S 0.1), we play for candy, we play for beans (we are hilarious), we play for the glory, we play to CRUSH the rest of the family. We play it at any time possible, as long as we have half an hour, there will be somebody putting out the dices.

Rat-a-Tat Cat! This is an odd one because I think it's for children, but I have a huge family and the adult cousins have definitely stolen this from the younger ones and had tipsy, late-into-the-night games of this. Super fun and when Toby is a little older he could play too.

My husband LOVES games and well... I don't. We've found a happy medium with non-strategy games, Farkle and Egyptian Rat Slap are our favorites. No kids yet, but they still are helping to get us through this Pacific Northwest dreary winter!

My husband and I have a "small" boardgame obsession. Our guest room wall to wall closet holds the majority of a our board games. I haven't counted recently but I'm pretty sure we have over 300. Liek I said a small obsession.

So I second, or third, or forth :-) Ticket to ride and carcassonne. I would also recommend Balloon Cup(a card came where you try to win these cubes), Maori(a newer game we've been playing--you are a boat and you draw tiles to make your ocean), and Can't Stop(a press your luck dice game) just to name a few.

We love Stratego and Chess. With a group we love Blokus and Qwirkle. Also, my husband's aunt and uncle play a card game called Spite and Might every morning before they both leave for work. I think thats cute.

Hi Joanna! My husband and I have been spending the winter here in Chicago in similar fashion. We love playing 500 rummy together! Now we have a whole mini notebook filled with scores and it's turned into quite the event on weeknights, making drinks and challenging each other to rounds. It's a great wintertime activity!

I just told my husband last night, "If I watch one more episode of House Hunters I will EXPLODE!!!" I'm glad I'm not alone, haha!! During the day I've resorted to drawing out roads all over our floors in painters tape for our two year old to drive his trucks around.... this winter just won't quit!!

Ohhhh we are HUGE board game nerds! Two player games can be tough to find, but Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne (as mentioned) are great! We also love Jaipur and Dominion. Also try Escape: The Curse of the Temple; it's good for two players and makes a greta family game for when the kids grow.

Playing games with your partner is such a great way to break up the evenings! We love lost cities and ticket to ride, both excellent strategy games that take up some time. So much fun! I would highly recommend both games.

Our friends have gotten really want into Settlers of Catan and Pandemic. They are both really confusing at first but so fun once you figure it out! Pandemic is my favorite because all the players are working together against the game, so no one gets overly competitive!

Pandemic is amazing! It's a cooperative game that we just started playing. It is best in groups, but still really fun (and challenging!) with 2 people. Settlers of Catan is a great group game, also (similar to Ticket to Ride).

Love your blog! Because you're a mom, and I'm always worried about the way competition can breed rivalries among siblings, I thought I'd let you know about some awesome cooperative board games:

HanabiPandemicForbidden Desert

They're probably too difficult for young kids, but as your boys get older, these are fun games where everybody has to cooperate in order for everybody to win! Such a beautiful display of partnership and teamwork rather than competitive tears!

How funny! Me and my Dad were just talking about Speed earlier! It use to be my favorite card games and I can't even remember all of the rules right now. Playing Tonk, Sorry, and D!Bone are fun too for two people. :-D

How funny! Me and my Dad were just talking about Speed earlier! It use to be my favorite card games and I can't even remember all of the rules right now. Playing Tonk, Sorry, and D!Bone are fun too for two people. :-D

We often "play" Catchphrase if we're looking for an evening pick me up. There's no real winner or loser with 2 people, but it's a fun way to hang out and something about that timer beeping faster and faster puts the pressure on even if it's meaningless!

If you both enjoy Rummy, try Rummykub. It's a tile game my grandmother taught me and it's so so fun. It really gets your mind going looking for all the combinations on the table you can make. Here's a link to the wikipedia article, but it doesn't do it justice relating how fun it is :)

Last winter my husband an I started "Winter Games Night" We would find a night that worked for the majority of our friends and have everyone over in the evening for games, drinks and snacks. Our group always wanted to a play a game we invented called "bag of nouns" Basically - the group splits into 2 teams. Each player writes down ten nouns on pieces of paper and throws them into a communal bag (can be a bowl, whatever u have). Then the rounds begin. Each round last until all the nouns are used up from the bag. The teams alternate 1.5 minute turns. The first round you have to describe your noun, using as many words as you want. You keep track of points - how many nouns u guess each turn until the bag is empty. Then all the nouns go back in the bag. The 2nd round you do the same thing but you only get 3 words to describe the noun for your team to guess. The 3rd round you act out the noun, no words.Because you are using the same words each round you get an idea of what people are doing, so it gets easier to guess and the turns start to go really quickly through the nouns in the bag. It is pretty hilarious, because often the nouns people choose are a bit racy, or people that the whole group knows... This game has been a hit every time i have ever used it!

Last winter my husband an I started "Winter Games Night" We would find a night that worked for the majority of our friends and have everyone over in the evening for games, drinks and snacks. Our group always wanted to a play a game we invented called "bag of nouns" Basically - the group splits into 2 teams. Each player writes down ten nouns on pieces of paper and throws them into a communal bag (can be a bowl, whatever u have). Then the rounds begin. Each round last until all the nouns are used up from the bag. The teams alternate 1.5 minute turns. The first round you have to describe your noun, using as many words as you want. You keep track of points - how many nouns u guess each turn until the bag is empty. Then all the nouns go back in the bag. The 2nd round you do the same thing but you only get 3 words to describe the noun for your team to guess. The 3rd round you act out the noun, no words.Because you are using the same words each round you get an idea of what people are doing, so it gets easier to guess and the turns start to go really quickly through the nouns in the bag. It is pretty hilarious, because often the nouns people choose are a bit racy, or people that the whole group knows... This game has been a hit every time i have ever used it!

My husband and I played hours of Kings in the Corner for at-home date nights. We even played this on our honeymoon at a quaint lodge in Volcano, Hawaii (with lots of wine and good music of course). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_in_the_Corner Thanks for your list of ideas! xo

Have you played Sequence yet? It's a board/card game that's terribly "old person" sounding, but competitive and addicting! My sweet hubby was given a board by one of his older patients and we played for an entire rainy weekend on a camping trip in Maine. Now, it's a Friday night in staple ;)

My grandparents play Rummicub almost every day since years! Now, everytime I come to visit them, we spend the afternoon playing it and now my mom took to it too and we play it every now and then at home. It's really addicting, and I normally don't even like most games!

So glad someone mentioned Sequence. I thought it was an all-American game which we played when visiting family in Boston five years ago. We bought a board back to South Africa and have introduced our family to the game. Now anyone visiting the States has to bring back a game for some family member or friend. It is an awesome game. Love your blog Joanna (and your lipstick)

My fiance LOVES games and so he will always jump at any chance to play them. We really love Blokus (a board game for 2-4) and Battle Line (a themed card game for 2). He also loves Euro board games, but I have to be in a more generous mood for those!

When my friends and I don't feel like trekking to the bar, we get a big group together and play "drunk bananagrams" - each time someone "peels", everyone else has to take a drink! It makes for a fun time!

My husband and I have been playing a lot of board games too! I was getting pretty sick of being beaten in Scrabble 3 nights a week, so I had my mom ship some of my old childhood board games, and it's been really great. Our favorite is Parcheesi- just enough strategy to keep it from being completely mindless. And drinks are a must! Something about tipsily playing board games with your husband is just so fun. :)

I can only take so many nights doing dinner > TV > bed, so I am always trying to get my boyfriend and I to do something fun. We used to play games on our Wii until it broke but one of my absolutely favorites is Gin Rummy. We used to play it all the time when we first started dating so it's fun to go back to.

Your lips (or is it more appropriate to say lipstick) look fantastic! I have an 8 month old and would love to spruce myself up with fun lipstick, but I'd get it all over his sweet face. I just can't resist kissing it. How do you do it?

A frequent activity in my home is "Who's Coming to Dinner?" How it works: my husband and I give each other two tough options to choose between having as dinner guests. They can be delightful (i.e.: Kate Winslet or Emma Thompson?) or devious (i.e.: Gilbert Godfried or Bobcat Goldthwait?). Both ways are equally fun.

Um, this might be weird, but I just remembered a game our family invented and loved: Blind Football. We made this up when I was about 9 or 10 and my sister was 14 or 15, so it might be awhile before your little guys could play. Here's the gist: Set up 'the field' in the biggest room in your house. Leave furniture mostly in place, but remove anything dangerous. Lay beach towels down on opposing ends of the room, end to end. These are your 'endzones'. Meet up in the middle of the room and use bandanas to blindfold each other. If there's an odd man out, you could have a sighted ref :) Using a nerf football, and with two to three people per team, whoever wins the coin toss hikes and then you crawl around in the dark, as QUIETLY as humanly possible, and try to score. You know you're in the endzone when you feel the towels. If anyone on the opposing team touches you, the play is dead and you have to hike again. Now that I type this out, we sound crazy...but we lived in the boonies and sometimes with nothing else to do, we'd play looong games of Blind Football in our living room. Brutal if you were crawling fast and jammed into the hearth...

Dominos! We played so many rounds during an ice storm some years back that it was shelved for a while due to our enthusiasm, but it's back. For large group, we play a card game called Shanghi which requires several decks of cards.

I am a former kindergarten teacher (6 years) and current middle school teacher (7th grade English) and have 5 nieces under the age of 9. My niece taught her grandparents and I how to play set when she was 6 years old and our family became addicted. My husband and I sometimes take SET to bars or coffee shops and play for hours.

I taught my kindergartners how to play set and it became a math center in our classroom. My 7th graders each have a pack of set at tables of 6 and play if they finish their work early.

Whenever I give a gift to anyone between age 5-10, I always give SET. If I am in a game/toy store, I recommend it to other shoppers. That's how crazy for it I am. Okay, that's all. I feel like your family will love it and Toby will love it in a few short years.

Oh I just thought about a word game my husband and I play in the car. It's called dictionary. You pick a word and the other person has to try and guess your word. They get clues by saying words and you tell them if your word would be before or after theirs in a dictionary. My husband is great at it and gets my words really quick, I on the other hand take a while to guess his. But it makes long car trips go faster.

After I gave birth we were stuck in the house for awhile. Thank goodness for European board games like Ticket To Ride and Settlers of Catan. But for two players, husband and I play Jaipur and Jambo (card games). Among other things.

Carcasonne is fantastic. My husband and I always have to decide whether we are going to play mean or nice - cut-throat strategy or a more gentle version. Depends on how much we like each other that day!

My husband and I just started playing chess together. It's such a great way to learn more about how your spouse thinks about things... We also love Scrabble (one time, we tied exactly!), Bananagrams, and Yahtzee.Thanks for this post!

For group games I really love Cards Against Humanity or Spoons. Every time I visit my fiance's family there is a family dinner followed by Pinochle. They are very competitive. If it's just the fiance and I, we will make a whole bunch of coffee and play Scrabble.

I swear you can read my mind! My husband and I are in the exact same rut- dinner, wine, House Hunters International (we even have a favorite realtor- the kooky lady in Paris with the bright red lipstick. She's the best!), and I was just thinking how we need to start playing some games. We've actually never played a game together in our 4.5 year relationship, so it should be fun to see our competitive sides come out. Well, it should be interesting, at least...thanks for the great ideas!

Speed Uno! It's like Uno on speed.. lol fun group game, can also play with 2. Ticket to Ride Scandinavia is the version you can play with 2 players and up to 4.. it's really fun (and you learn your Scandinavian geography!) Bang is a really fun Cowboy themed card game you can play with 2 people or up to 8 (depending whether you have expansion or not). Pandemic is fun, but requires at least 3 players. Farkle is also a blast! Less strategic and more wild gambling haha.

We love Monopoly Deal! It's a card game based off the board game -- we picked it up at target (don't get the "millionaire edition" - it's lame. 2-5 or 6 players but 2 is really fun, and in a couple years Toby will be able to play too :)

We love Monopoly Deal! It's a card game based off the board game -- we picked it up at target (don't get the "millionaire edition" - it's lame. 2-5 or 6 players but 2 is really fun, and in a couple years Toby will be able to play too :)

My boyfriend and I play games with dinner most nights, and at brunch on the weekends.

Right now we're on a cribbage kick (the rules are a bit weird, but so much fun once you get the hang of it!). We also love backgammon, Sorry!, Skip-Bo (aka Spite & Malice), dice games like Yahtzee! and farkle.

We almost always get comments when we head out to restaurant or bar with our favorite game!

In December my husband and I traveled to Baltimore so I could donate a kidney to a friend. I was only in the hospital for three days, but we had to stay in a hotel for three weeks ... over Christmas and New Years! On a whim, we picked up a Yahtzee game at a bookstore at the Inner Harbor during our first few days there. Playing Yahtzee ended up being a great way to pass the time while we waited around in the hotel room.

Qwirkle, Set, Dominion (kinda dorky... it took months for my boyfriend to convince me to play but it's actually really fun), Sequence, Anagrams (there are trademarked versions but it's basically a parlor game that's been around forever and you can play with Scrabble or Bananagrams tiles).

My boyfriend and I also play a word-based version of Mastermind in which you don't need anything but your brain to play. Good for car trips or camping. :)

My boyfriend and I are borderline too competitive to play games together, but we still kind of do...in terms of card games, Egyptian Ratscrew (kind of like Spit--super fun) and sometimes Black Jack, Set...We play different dice games, and then make some up...We both love Taboo and sometimes play "Team Taboo," just trying to get as many words as possible in a minute (also good practice for when you play with other people!) and then some of the old favorites--Monopoly, LIFE, Guess Who! And then we bet on the Oscars, of course. I won last night ;-)